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Larry Livingston

Larry Livingston is known as a distinguished conductor, educator, administrator, and motivational speaker. The founding Music Director of the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, Livingston has appeared with the Houston Symphony and in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series.

Portrait image of former NEC Vice President, Larry Livingston

Larry Livingston History

Mr. Livingston has led the American Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra, the USC Thornton Chamber and Symphony Orchestras in Los Angeles, and the USC Thornton Contemporary Music Ensemble in Berlin. In 2001, he served on the jury for the renowned Besancon International Conducting Competition in Besancon, France.

Livingston frequently appears with professional, festival, collegiate, and all-state wind ensembles, bands, and orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. From 1983 to 2002, he served as a conductor in the University of Michigan All-State Program at Interlochen and has been the Conductor of the Festival Orchestra at Idyllwild Arts since 1989.  From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Livingston regularly toured Germany and Slovakia with the Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie. During 2004-2005, Mr. Livingston toured with the famed Landes Jugend Orchester, served as a clinician and guest conductor at the College Band Directors National Conference in Alice Tully Hall, led the New Mexico All-State Orchestra, and the USC Thornton School Symphony. In the 2005-2006 season, he appeared with the George Enescu Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania, the Katowice Academy Orchestra in Poland, and the Oregon All-State Orchestra, and served as a clinician for the University of Northern Colorado Conducting Symposium.  In addition, he conducted the Thornton Symphony Orchestra with guest soloist, Itzhak Perlman, and the Thornton Chamber Orchestra.

Livingston earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan and completed Ph.D. coursework in theoretical studies at the University of California, San Diego. He studied conducting and interpretation with Laurence Livingston, Elizabeth Green, William Revelli, Keith Humble, Rafael Druian, and Herbert Zipper. From 1977 to 1982, Mr. Livingston served as Vice President and Music Director of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he was also Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and Contemporary Music Ensemble. Subsequently, he became Dean of the Shepherd School of Music and Elma Schneider Professor of Music (Conducting) at Rice University in Houston. From 1986 until 2002, Mr. Livingston served as Dean of the USC Flora L. Thornton School of Music, where he is Chair of the Conducting Department and Music Director of Thornton School Orchestras.  As a motivational speaker, he has established a national reputation for inspiring presentations to corporate and business leaders across the United States.  Since 2002, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Guitar Center, the world’s largest retail music store chain.

Biographical Source: Thornton School of Music-Faculty Profiles-Larry J. Livingston (Accessed 12 November 2008) https://music.usc.edu/larry-j-livingston/

Archival Collection

The Larry Livingston collection contains 5 lin. ft. or half of a record carton. The collection consists of paper records only, organized into eighty-two folders.

This collection was generated by Larry Livingston during his tenure at NEC as Assistant to the President and Vice President. These materials had been kept in storage until they were transferred to the Archives in 2004.

Access to the Larry Livingston Papers is granted by the Archivist. Appointments must be scheduled in advance. There may be some restrictions on this collection, primarily about the faculty files. Issues concerning access will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

All copyrights to this collection belong to the New England Conservatory. Permission to publish materials from this collection is granted by the Archivist. This collection should be cited as NECA 3.3. Larry J. Livingston Papers, New England Conservatory Archives, Boston, MA.

The Larry Livingston Papers are organized into five series:

  1. Correspondence
  2. Faculty Files
  3. Academic Department Files
  4. Subject Files
  5. External Files

Larry Livingston’s Correspondence includes general correspondence spanning the years 1977-1981, as well as correspondence with the NEC Community, NEC staff/administration, and students/parents. The general correspondence is largely comprised of the scheduling of guest artists’ visits, other invitations, recommendations, and job applications.

Faculty files make up a large portion of this collection. These files contain correspondence and/or materials relating to individual faculty members. They are arranged alphabetically by faculty member’s last name. There is also one faculty file that deals with faculty evaluations and governance.

In the Academic Department series, there is a particular focus on the departments of African-American music, Jazz, Music History/Music Literature, Performance of Early Music (PEM), Third Stream, and Undergraduate Theory.  Livingston was very involved in a review of the Orchestra program (Large Ensemble file) and the search for a new director.

Two Subject files also concern the NEC orchestra – one documenting the guest conductor’s program and the other, the orchestra’s trip to Evian, France, as well as Livingston’s involvement with the scholarship ensembles. The subject files also contain a mission/goals statement for NEC written by Livingston and a band repertoire list drafted by Livingston. Other topics covered in the subject files include the Crest Recording Project, the Medium Rare Big Band, NEC Instruments, the Firestone collection, and the WGBH Radio Broadcasts.

There are only two External Files – one on the Brookline Youth Concerts, and the other on Simmons College.

Series 1:  Correspondence

  • Folder 1 – Correspondence, General, 1977
  • Folder 2 – Correspondence, General, 1978
  • Folder 3 – Correspondence, General, 1979
  • Folder 4 – Correspondence, General, 1980
  • Folder 5 – Correspondence, General, 1981
  • Folder 6 – Correspondence, NEC Community
  • Folder 7 – Correspondence, NEC Staff, Administration
  • Folder 8 – Correspondence, Students

Series 2: Faculty Files

  • Folder 9 – Faculty Files, Community
  • Folder 10 – Faculty Files, Individuals
  • Folder 11 – Faculty Senate, Evaluation/Governing Committee
  • Folder 12 – Faculty Files, Atkins, Carl
  • Folder 13 – Faculty Files, Barbeau, Bernard
  • Folder 14 – Faculty Files, Battisti, Frank
  • Folder 15 – Faculty Files, Berger, Arthur
  • Folder 16 – Faculty Files, Blake, Ran
  • Folder 17 – Faculty Files, Ceely, Robert
  • Folder 18 – Faculty Files, Cogan, Robert
  • Folder 19 – Faculty Files, DeVaron, Lorna Cooke
  • Folder 20 – Faculty Files, DeVoll, Ray
  • Folder 21 – Faculty Files, Felice, John
  • Folder 22 – Faculty Files, Giuffre, Jimmy
  • Folder 23 – Faculty Files, Hallmark, Anne
  • Folder 24 – Faculty Files, Hayashi, Yuko
  • Folder 25 – Faculty Files, Heiss, John
  • Folder 26 – Faculty Files, Hoffmann, James
  • Folder 27 – Faculty Files, Hollenbeck, Patrick
  • Folder 28 – Faculty Files, Jeppesen, Laura
  • Folder 29 – Faculty Files, Lafferty, Donald
  • Folder 30 – Faculty Files, Lehner, Eugene
  • Folder 31 – Faculty Files, Leisner, David
  • Folder 32 – Faculty Files, Lesser, Laurence
  • Folder 33 – Faculty Files, Martino, Donald
  • Folder 34 – Faculty Files, Maxym, Stephen
  • Folder 35 – Faculty Files, McKinley, William Thomas
  • Folder 36 – Faculty Files, Monteux, Claude
  • Folder 37 – Faculty Files, Moore, Richard
  • Folder 38 – Faculty Files, Nagel, Robert
  • Folder 39 – Faculty Files, Nagin, Carl
  • Folder 40 – Faculty Files, Pinkham, Daniel
  • Folder 41 – Faculty Files, Pittman, Richard
  • Folder 42 – Faculty Files, Radnofsky, Kenneth
  • Folder 43 – Faculty Files, Rapier, Wayne
  • Folder 44 – Faculty Files, Rosenbaum, Victor
  • Folder 45 – Faculty Files, Rosenblith, Eric
  • Folder 46 – Faculty Files, Roth, Kenneth
  • Folder 47 – Faculty Files, Row, Peter
  • Folder 48 – Faculty Files, Schaefer, Lois
  • Folder 49 – Faculty Files, Shapiro, Lois
  • Folder 50 – Faculty Files, Sherman, Russell
  • Folder 51 – Faculty Files, Shure, Leonard
  • Folder 52 – Faculty Files, Stewart, John
  • Folder 53 – Faculty Files, Sutton, Julia
  • Folder 54 – Faculty Files, Walters, Mike
  • Folder 55 – Faculty Files, Zander, Benjamin
  • Folder 56 – Faculty Files, Zaritsky, Gerald

Series 3:  Academic Departments

  • Folder 57 – Afro-American Music
  • Folder 58 – Composition
  • Folder 59 – Electronic Music
  • Folder 60 – Guitar
  • Folder 61 – Jazz
  • Folder 62 – Large Ensembles
  • Folder 63 – Music Education
  • Folder 64 – Music History
  • Folder 65 – Percussion
  • Folder 66 – Performance of Early Music (PEM)
  • Folder 67 – Strings
  • Folder 68 – Theory
  • Folder 69 – Third Stream
  • Folder 70 – Winds

Series 4: Subject Files

  • Folder 71 – Band Guide
  • Folder 72 – Crest Recording Project
  • Folder 73 – Evian Tour, Orchestra
  • Folder 74 – Firestone Collection
  • Folder 75 – Guest Conductor program
  • Folder 76 – Medium Rare Big Band
  • Folder 77 – Mission Statement
  • Folder 78 – Instruments
  • Folder 79 – Scholarship Ensembles
  • Folder 80 – WGBH Radio Broadcasts

Series 5: External Files

  • Folder 81 – Brookline Youth Concerts
  • Folder 82 – Simmons College